Audio 3:30
Interim reprieve given for thousands of rare chickens

Caroline WinterUpdated
Tue 16 Jul 2013, 4:06 PM AEST

Four thousand rare chickens have been given a stay of execution, after the federal court stepped in to stop the slaughter. One of the birds, being quarantined in South Australia, returned a positive result to salmonella prompting the Agriculture Department to destroy the entire brood. The group who imported the birds have until Thursday to argue why the chickens shouldn't be killed.

Transcript

ELEANOR HALL: Four thousand rare chickens have been given a stay of execution by the Federal Court.

The birds were being quarantined in South Australia, and one of them returned a positive result to salmonella, prompting the Agriculture Department to order that they all be destroyed.

But the Court has now given the importers until Thursday to convince it why the chickens shouldn't be killed.

In Adelaide, Caroline Winter reports.

CAROLINE WINTER: For a decade Will Marshall has run a rare breeds farm on Kangaroo Island, off South Australia's coast.

He was looking forward to adding poultry to his unique menagerie of cattle, pigs and sheep.

WILL MARSHALL: The opportunity to be involved in something as massive and historic as this event of the legal importation of a range of pure breeds of poultry into the country after nearly 70 years is an amazing thing.

CAROLINE WINTER: Will Marshall is part of a group of 100 people which has spent 10 years and half a million dollars to bring 45 rare chicken breeds from the UK to Australia.

The syndicate set up a quarantined breeding program on Torrens Island near Adelaide, from where 4,000 birds were due to be released to chook lovers across the country this week.

WILL MARSHALL: It certainly will help invigorate or reinvigorate the genetics for a range of breeds we currently have in Australia. It also means we'll have a range of breeds that may have died out or in a lot of cases were never in Australia.

CAROLINE WINTER: But on Friday the Agriculture Department ordered they be destroyed.

The cull was meant to happen this morning because one chick tested positive to salmonella pullorum.

However, late yesterday, the group won an injunction in the Federal Court to stop the execution for now.

Syndicate spokesperson, Meredith Parker:

MEREDITH PARKER: We have managed to stop the chickens being slaughtered today, but we're no closer to getting approval to do the testing regime that we want to conduct whilst the chickens are in the facility in order to determine the prevalence of the disease, if in fact it's even in there.

CAROLINE WINTER: She says they've been refused permission from the Agriculture Department to conduct that testing.

They now have just days to prove why the chooks should be saved.

MEREDITH PARKER: We need to make an argument to be able to conduct this additional testing to gain epidemiological evidence.

He says the syndicate needs to argue that testing is the only way to receive natural justice.

PAUL GILCHRIST: We take a drop of blood from the bird and mix it with the antigen, and then it's either positive or negative; positive birds are killed, the negative birds are retested then in a couple of weeks' time until the whole flock has worked its way through two successive 100 per cent negative tests.

CAROLINE WINTER: In a statement, the Agriculture Department says:

AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT STATEMENT (voiceover): The train of salmonella found presents a significant risk to Australia's $2.5 billion poultry industry. All animals in the consignment have been exposed to the disease, and as there's no effective treatment, a decision has been made to humanely euthanase the flock.

CAROLINE WINTER: Will Marshall says bringing the animals in safely will also stop the illegal trade of rare breeds and potential infection.

WILL MARSHALL: This matter we're dealing with here is nothing compared to what potentially is going to happen - if people just give up on this legal avenue, then there's people that will go down the illegal avenue again, and that would just be bad not only for our poultry but for our commercial poultry producers but also for Australian bird life.

CAROLINE WINTER: The matter will be heard in the Federal Court on Thursday.